Archive for the 'Gin Blossoms' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

From left: Ozzy, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler in June at the Kerrang! Awards. Photo: Getty Images

Black Sabbath: Is it just coincidence that Ozzy Osbourne fell off the wagon, rupturing his marriage in the process, while working on his first studio set with Sabbath since 1978? Did he require a more demented state of mind to reconnect with his past? We’ll begin to find out Thursday, April 18, when the first single (“God Is Dead?”) from the British metal legends’ Rick Rubin-produced album 13 (due June 11) premieres on radio, becoming available for download on Friday.

Meanwhile, the band – also featuring guitarist Tony Iommi and bassist Geezer Butler but not drummer Bill Ward, replaced on record (and presumably on tour) by Rage Against the Machine’s Brad Wilk – has announced four North American performances in late summer, their first in eight years. That includes a Sept. 3 show at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, $46.50-$126.50, on sale Saturday, April 20, at 10 a.m.

Selena Gomez: The former Disney Channel star, whose fourth album (and first billed without her band the Scene) arrives this summer, is steadily developing a pop career that could outlast that of her ex-boyfriend, Justin Bieber. Proof: she’s got her own surefire sellout at Staples Center, slated for Nov. 6, $30.50-$66.50, on sale Saturday at 10 a.m.

September 16th, 2012, 9:55 am by ROBERT KINSLER, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Joe Walsh at Jack's 7th Show at Verizon. Photo: Joshua Sudock, The Orange County Register. Click for more.

With six artists performing over the course of exactly six hours – Missing Persons kicked things off at 4:48 p.m. and Joe Walsh wrapped everything up at 10:48 – Jack's 7th Show offered up a menu sure to please casual concert-goers out to party hard on a Saturday night.

With all acts playing relatively short sets at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, hits were the main course, giving the audience all the substance they needed to feed on at an event that started at about the same time temperatures mercifully began to drop from the 100-degree mark.

Ironically, it was on a similarly blistering day almost 30 years ago that Missing Persons and Walsh shared the same stage at the US Festival. This writer's most vivid memories of that concert (May 30, 1983, at Glen Helen Park in San Bernardino) is how Missing Persons was placed in a true no-win situation when that band had to follow just-breaking U2, which simply blew away the massive crowd with one of the most compelling sets ever in Southern California.

Walsh, who went on much later that day under cooler skies, delivered a solid set that lacked the power of U2 or David Bowie's impressive finale, yet it was exactly the sort of entertaining rock show he brought to his headlining 75-minute turn in Irvine on Saturday.

For Jack's Seventh Show (wow, where's the time gone?), the radio station has tapped two more classic rockers: Joe Walsh, in a fairly rare large-scale solo performance behind his first non-Eagles album in a decade, Analog Man; and Pat Benatar, appearing as always with her guitarist husband Neil Giraldo. Those perennial favorites will headline the Irvine bash on Sept. 15.

Rounding out the lineup are four more acts that reflect Jack's daily all-decades stew of hits: Toto, back from blessing the rains with Rosanna down in Africa; MC Hammer, securing the roster's Tone Loc position; Gin Blossoms, fresh from their trip on the Summerland Tour; and Missing Persons, still featuring Dale Bozzio, still unsure what words are for or why anyone would walk in L.A.

On the surface it looks like nothing more than a collection of past-their-prime bands packaged for the road to potentially up their sales ante, but the Summerland Tour – which made its second stop Friday night at the Greek Theatre – is actually one of the most culturally significant tours of the summer.

To any aging grunge-rockers still obsessed with credibility, that's a somewhat sickening suggestion, but it isn't hyperbole. The kinda-all-star conflagration of Marcy Playground, Lit, Gin Blossoms, Sugar Ray and Everclear (two of which just put out new albums) is more or less the first '90s nostalgia tour, although it narrowly beat out the launch of the similarly constructed Last Summer on Earth Tour (featuring Barenaked Ladies, Blues Traveler, Cracker and Big Head Todd & the Monsters) by a mere week. (That arrives at Gibson Amphitheatre on July 27.)

Both bills are a test of whether Gen-X'ers, like their parents before them, are ready to put aside any need for relevance in favor of a rush of remembrance from bands whose days of radio hits are behind them – whose minor cultural significance, that is, faded away with the end of the Clinton presidency.

The results at the Greek were resoundingly favorable. A surprise turnout (both Sugar Ray frontman Mark McGrath and Everclear's Art Alexakis declared it a sell-out, though roughly 500 of the venue's 6500 seats were blocked off and unsold) combined with spirited, not-sad-at-all sets from four of the five bands (more on that in a minute) made the night, well, fun – which was the whole point in the first place.

Hadn't we already heard that the Fab Four were going to play Pacific Amphitheatre this summer?

Or am I just thinking of last year? Or the year before that?

In any case, the popular Beatles tribute is back, appearing during the OC Fair on Aug. 4. Beach Boys salute Surfin' Safari will open. Tickets are $15-$32.50.

Also coming to Pacific: puppeteer/comedian Jeff Dunham, who performs Aug. 5 at the Costa Mesa venue. Those tickets are $39.50-$69.50. Both shows go on sale Saturday, April 14, at 10 a.m.

Elsewhere, there are two new attractions at City National Grove of Anaheim: country favorite Jo Dee Messina, July 22, $25-$40 ... and R&B mainstay Mint Condition, July 21, $35-$45. Both are on sale Friday at noon.

Three Dog Night, with two of its original three singers on hand, and America, also featuring two of its three original members, rolled out the hits in spirited fashion Friday night at Pacific Amphitheatre.

The first group has been touring for a couple of decades without Chuck Negron, who supplied lead vocals for many of their plentiful singles in the '70s. From 1969-75, nobody sold more records than Three Dog Night: 21 consecutive Top 40 singles, including seven chart-toppers, plus 12 No. 1 albums in a row. That's dominating stuff.

Drugs took Negron out of the picture years ago, and some lingering animosity and legal action regarding the rights to the Three Dog Night name will likely (and sadly) keep him away from remaining singers Danny Hutton and Cory Wells. The latter two gamely soldiered on; it was easy to see Friday how they've managed to do so.

Hutton and Wells sounded terrific, and their band, including guitarist Michael Allsup and keyboardist Jimmy Witherspoon, was rock-solid. Next time you hear a Three Dog Night song on K-EARTH, notice there was a good drummer on that recording; they've got another one in the fold with Pat Bautz.

The inaugural event took place June 12, 1993, and included Terence Trent D'Arby, Dramarama, Gin Blossoms, the Lemonheads, the Posies, Rocket from the Crypt, X and STP. Of all artists to have played Weenie Roast, Stone Temple Pilots, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tim Armstrong -- whether solo or with Rancid or Transplants -- have performed most frequently over the years.

Take a spin through our slide show to see many of the acts that have appeared. Some have proven lastingly memorable. Others may have you asking: “What happened to that dude/band/white rapper?”

January 17th, 2011, 2:26 pm by GEORGE A. PAUL, FOR THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Audience participation is a common occurrence at many concerts, but the fervent reaction Dashboard Confessional elicits when it plays intimate venues is rare. Creative chief Chris Carrabba pours his heart out onstage and followers sing just as loud, as if their lives depended on it.

Many of us first got a glimpse of this phenomenon while watching the group on MTV's revamped Unplugged in 2002 -- the first music artist without a platinum-selling album to do so since the show switched to a non-host format. An accompanying Unplugged disc eventually reached that sales plateau, however, and three studio efforts subsequently went gold.

A decade removed from Dashboard's full-length debut The Swiss Army Romance, from late 2000, teenagers and college students still predominantly dominate the emo-rock act's core fan base. Such was the case Sunday night at House of Blues Anaheim.

Carrabba has been touring solo acoustic -- just like the early days following his exit from indie-rock band Further Seems Forever -- to support a limited-edition box-set reissue commemorating the 10th anniversary of Romance ($149 and available only via the official website).

This spring, Carrabba will mark another anniversary when he reunites with his old band for its first series of live dates since a one-off gig in 2005 (though only the Paradise in Boston on April 11 and the Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey on May 1 have been announced so far). Right before Christmas, the original lineup also put out an acoustic 7-inch vinyl single.